Mermaid vs Sailors
by Tabbyluna
Summary: Escort missions have never been the Skylanders' favorite type, but never had there been a specific request for certain Skylanders to escort someone. Why were they chosen? What is up with the twin mermaids? And will they get to the AARCC on time? Find out in Mermaid vs Sailors.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One

One of the many thing that the Skylanders did - besides defending Skylands from evil and darkness, educating new Skylanders in hopes of them becoming heroes and standing up for what is good and true, and trying to convince Hugo that sheep are not going to take over the world - was escort missions. Most Skylanders did not really like this part of the job. Some found these missions rather boring, as adventuring and exploration were kept to a minimum. Some found that constantly having to protect another person that could hardly defend himself rather stressful, and some dislike escort missions because of both reasons. But everyone agrees that whatever has to be done, has to be done, even if escort missions usually are boring and tedious.

Sometimes people request certain types of Skylanders for certain types of terrains. This was usually a fairly reasonable request, but only on one occasion did someone ever request specific Skylanders for escort.

It all started when Master Eon called the five Skylanders into the Academy library to inform them about their new mission. He told them to meet there at noon. At 12o'clock sharp, Sprocket, Wham-Shell, Echo, Riptide and Nightfall entered the room, and patiently waited for the revelation of their new mission. Five minutes later, Hugo walked in, looking flustered and holding a small letter. Master Eon's spirit followed suite.

'Good afternoon,' began Master Eon. 'Nice to see that all of you are here right on time to receive your new mission.'

'It's an escort mission,' began Hugo, he ignored the disappointed murmur as he continued.

'The king of the Siren Kingdom Of The North has requested the five of you specifically to escort his twin daughters to the Annual Aquatic Royal Child Convention, or AARCC for short…'

'He requested for us specifically? Why us?' asked Nightfall.

'Well, his majesty said that you five were who his daughters requested. He said that they had not provided any reasoning as to why they chose you five, so I do not know. Although I do have my theories…'

'Unfortunately Hugo, now is not the time for you to say why you think this situation is so.' Said the great portal master.

'Yes, Master Eon. Anyways, moving on.' He continued, 'He said that in two days, his daughters will arrive at the Academy as it will reduce the total travelling distance. You will be provided with a submarine to escort his daughters. You guys would have to find your own transportation back, though. You have roughly a week to get to the destination, which according to him, is plenty of time.'

'And one more thing, there were sightings of a jellyfish migration going on in the South waters, where you guys will be travelling. So please do be careful.' Added Master Eon. 'You are all dismissed.'

OoOoOoOoOo

'So, you prepared to go on your first escort mission?'

Low grumbling noises.

'I'll take that as a no.'

Nightfall sighed as she pulled herself out from underneath the Sea Shadow's control panel. She pulled out a book of maps with her and clutched it near her chest, then slid herself out of the submarine. The dreadwalker looked Sprocket in the eye and replied to her question properly.

'Not at all.' She sighed, 'All the stories I've heard about escort missions are usually about how they are as dull as rocks and stressful due to constantly having to look after someone.' She placed the book down on a nearby workbench, sat down, and opened the book.

Sprocket slid into the chair right beside her, watching Nightfall unfold a large map of the north waters. She herself pulled out a pencil and a small notebook, and had begun sketching a prototype for a water-efficient Betty Mine. 'Well, if you don't mind me sharing my two cents, I never really found escort missions to be all that bad.'

Nightfall directed her attention away from the maps and towards the golding. 'Oh, really? What do you mean?'

'Well,' she stopped sketching, 'Most of these missions are pretty low-key, that's true. But low-key doesn't necessarily mean boring. Most of these missions are actually pretty quiet, usually with only one or two small attacks from some minor mooks. It's actually kind of peaceful. Good for clearing your thoughts. The ones you always hear about are usually the worst case scenarios, but they're actually quite uncommon. Like, only about forty percent of escort missions are like that.' She resumed sketching the prototype.

'Mm hmm…' The dreadwalker studied the map intensely. 'The girls will be from the Siren Kingdom Of The North, so brace yourself for obnoxious behaviour.'

'Why?' Sprocket looked up from her notebook.

Nightfall took a few seconds to think about how she would explain why the North Siren Kingdom royal family was low on the list of people whom she wanted to meet. Finally, she spoke up. 'Everyone has a lot to say about the siren kingdoms under the sea. Mainly because these four kingdoms are pretty awful places in their own ways. I could go on for hours about each one but let's keep it simple. The North Kingdom is the richest of the kingdoms, most of the villagers live in the lap of luxury and are happy with life that way. It's a generic bustling city. Unfortunately, there is an unwritten rule that absolutely cannot be broken: _To be lawful and perfect is the most important virtue. For perfection is the key to success._

'This rule has led to the kingdom being a super controlled place. Since no one can do anything without approval from a higher authority figure, and everyone believes that the 'imperfect' are useless, pretty much everyone in that place looks down on someone. There are a million people there who are condescending, arrogant snobs. You know the type. The ones that look down on people who are "unusual" or "stupid", or they ignore them like they don't exist, or think you're crazy...'

'Or they condescend towards you about how "what you're doing is not proper" and since they don't do it that automatically makes them way better than you?'

Nightfall sighed, 'Yeah. People like that.' She shook her head, that got rather personal. 'There really are a million people out there like that. I really hope that the princesses won't be one of those, but I'm a little worried that they will. I'm just warning you because, you know, they might see a goldling and a dreadwalker in the Skylanders and try to probe. Ask us what are we doing here, and if they found out… Well, you know the drill, I'm sure.'

Sprocket tapped her pencil against the workbench, thinking about how to reply to that. 'Well,' she began, 'they could always be an exception. There usually is. I mean, I was one, you're one, let's hope that the princesses are.' She placed the finishing touches on the sketch. 'And if they aren't, we could always just squeeze the two of them in the Sea Shadow and rift the two of them to the AARCC, that would give us a few days to change our names and take new identities to avoid the wrath of their father.'

Nightfall gave a good-natured eye-roll (Which was rather impressive, considering that her eyes were blank). Sprocket returned that gesture with a good-natured shrug, and they both resumed with their work.

OoOoOoOoOo

'So, you've met these girls before, Wham?' Asked Echo.

Echo ran past a simulated Squidface Brute. The Brute lunged himself at the water dragon, but Echo jumped up before he could touch her, and sent a sonic slam that knocked him off his feet. Echo then sent a myriad of bubble bombs towards him, knocking the Squidface Brute out. Wham Shell then ran up to the knocked out Brute, and did the finishing blow. The simulation flickered, and disappeared. Behind him were several Blastaneers, pinned down by dozens of starfish that Wham had shot from his mace.

'Yes, I have.' Wham Shell motioned for the dragon to duck, and shot down the Squiddler that was about to shoot his friend. 'It was a long time ago, when I was a young prince, the girls could not have been more than eight at that time. I can recall that Oceana was more willing to do her royal duties at a social event, namely to socialise and be diplomatic. Marina was socialising too, and she did look like she was enjoying it. But I could have sworn that she was half lost in thought-'

'How old are they now?' Asked Riptide, as he slammed an orca into the Blastaneers. He had a look on his face that finished his question for him: _at least eighteen, I hope?_

Wham Shell snickered behind his hand when he saw Rip's face. 'The two of them should be at least eighteen by now. But I'm not sure if either of them would be into your type.'

'Right, North Kingdom sirens. And royalty to boot.' He chucked a herring at a Squidface Brute a few feet in front of him. 'Don't tell Hugo I'm using what's supposed to be dinner as ammo.'

'My lips are sealed, I don't like herring cooked by Hugo either.' Echo chuckled as Rip practically buried the Brute in fish. 'New method of battle?'

Riptide grinned, 'Yup! Been waiting for the right moment to try it out.' He finished off with a stab to the gut, causing the Brute simulation to disappear. It left a pile of fish in it's place. 'Well, I think that's the last of them.'

Wham Shell pulled the leaver signifying the end of the training session. Immediately, the doors swung open, and the Skylanders exited.

'I wonder if the girls have changed at all since I last saw them.' Pondered Wham Shell out loud. 'If they didn't, Marina would not be hard to escort, but getting Oceana to listen to and respect us would be quite difficult.'

Internally, he kicked himself. He was worrying too much about these girls. He knew that he should worry about them when the time came, but there was a small part of him that wondered if the girls would still treat him with the same amount of respect as they did when they first met…

'Why? Aren't you supposed to be a king? And besides, Sprocket's a golding. Don't the north sirens have it in their culture that they have to respect people like that?'

Wham Shell shook his head. 'It's not that simple. The unwritten law is in such a way so that if anybody were to, in any way, shape or form, rebel against their duties or the laws of their land, they would be deemed unworthy of respect. Even if it was for a greater good. The punishment is more severe for people of higher statuses. For example, since I went to deal with the trolls that invaded my homeland myself instead of sending guards or something similar, I would technically be deemed unworthy of respect, and I would have my title of heir revoked, and on top of all that, I would be estranged from my family. I have personally known royalty in that kingdom who have been estranged because of this way of life. Frankly, most of the other underwater royal families find this type of thinking rather stupid. But, what can you do? You can't change a city in a day.'

He sighed, 'I suppose this is a stupid thing to worry about, but considering most of our histories, I wonder if this escort mission would go as well as they usually do.'

'To be fair, I did try to be quiet in my old home. I didn't try to be loud. I just couldn't help it.' Echo said with a small grin on her face. 'Besides, it's a quick escort mission. If we don't draw attention to ourselves and our past, it should be relatively drama free, right?'

'To be honest Echo, I'm not sure just how worldly our princesses have gotten. Or how perceptive. The two of them were very curious to the world around them the last time I met them. We will just have to wait and see.' Wham Shell watched as his two friends made an expression that could be described as "worried and impatient". 'It's only two days guys, be patient.'

'Says mister "Knock Harder At The Castle Gates."' Echo replied. 'You don't exactly have the best track record for patience Wham.'

Wham Shell chuckled, 'That was a different context, Echo. Besides, I paid for the damages, which is more than I can say for some people.'

Riptide shrugged. 'Well, I'm not the rich one. Almost eternally broke, in fact! I do community service instead, but for some reason they wouldn't let me coach child sports teams anymore…'

'Almost eternally broke?'

'Yup! Haven't lived in a proper house since I was a kid!'

'Then where did you sleep before joining the Skylanders' Asked Echo.

'In some pretty weird places.' Replied Riptide, in his usual boisterous tone. 'Like in random peoples' homes, amusement parks, one time in an abandoned dungeon that I went down all by myself. Apparently other fishes died down there, I saw their skeletons and all.'

'…'

'…'

'Sweet.' Echo smiled at the fish man.

'I know right?' Riptide grinned back.

Wham Shell smiled. It was somewhat amusing how the conversation had derailed. _Maybe I should stop thinking about the twins._ He thought. _Maybe the conversation derailing was for the best. I should worry about them when the time comes._

Wham Shell walked towards his friends. It was the evening, and almost time for dinner. In the distance, the doorbell ringing could be heard, showing that Hugo had given up and ordered pizza. The three Skylanders exchanged one final friendly look, one that said: _the reason why he ordered pizza today will be our little secret. Let us all agree not to tell anybody about this._ And then they took off, in hopes of getting a good slice of pizza; one that was not too greasy or too small. They would worry about the princesses in a couple of days. But right now, they were hungry, and the best part was that Hugo did not manage to cook herring.

To be continued

OoOoOoOoOo

 **Okay, second story. This one will be multi-part. I'm aiming for five chapters. Watch this space for more updates. Once again, I hope you enjoy this story. Comments are appreciated as long as they are civil. And I will see you in the next update.**

 **-Tabbyluna**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

Two days passed by quickly, and before long the five Skylanders were at the beach, up early in the morning, waiting for the arrival of the twin princesses. As the sun was just about to rise, the area was still shrouded with the dark blue tint of night. The Sea Shadow was docked close to the bay; the royal family had said that they would provide the Skylanders with a submarine that had an area to store it. The only sound was the sea, the water lapping at the shore.

Nightfall looked down at her watch. _They said that they would arrive fifteen minutes ago! Where are the-_ Her thoughts were interrupted by the sensation of a sudden earthquake. The ground shook, and water splashed in slightly bigger waves onto the shore. Soon, the source of this sudden convulsion showed itself. A submarine slowly made its grand reveal, rising slowly from the deep blue.

Eventually, it revealed itself at it's full, magnificent height. The submarine at its full size was something to marvel at. Nightfall did a brief calculation in her head, and concluded that, along with all the pipes and wirings that usually made submarines so cramped, all eight Giants could fit comfortably in there.

The entrance of the submarine popped open, and a thin figure climbed out. He was rather seahorse-like in appearance, however he was bipedal. He was blue-skinned and had greenish-blue hair. He pulled out a piece of soggy parchment, cleared his throat, and announced, with a crisp and clear voice: 'Make way for Princess Oceana Pollux of the Northern Siren Kingdom and Princess Marina Castor of the Northern Siren Kingdom!'

Right on cue, the princesses climbed out of the submarine opening. They looked almost identical, and they looked like they were of the same species of their herald. The only way to differentiate between the two of them at first glance was their hair decorations. Oceana had a large, orange starfish hairclip pinning up her curly hair. Marina, on the other hand, had a series of small star-shaped clips holding up her hair in some sort messy bun. The hair clips were blueish-white and red in colour. Both their faces were caked with make-up. They walked up towards the Skylanders, and greeted them with a small curtsey each.

Wham Shell instinctively bowed back, after a brief second, so did Sprocket. Everyone else soon followed their actions.

After this (somewhat awkward) formal greeting, Princess Marina broke the tension.

'Hello Skylanders,' she said, a small smile on her face. 'Thanks for accepting my request. I was worried that it would be shot down.'

Princess Oceana had a surprised look on her face that said: _Are my eyes deceiving me?_

Wham Shell grinned at Marina, and everyone else relaxed their posture once they realized that the princess was being informal with them.

'Ah, Prince Wham Shell of the Isle Of Sunken Ships. Nice to see you again.' She grinned back at him. 'Or should I say, King Wham Shell of the Isle Of Sunken Ships. If memory serves, you got crowned a while back. I apologize on behalf of my family's refusal to attend the ceremony.'

'Nice to see you again, Princess Marina.' The crustacean said. 'I'm glad to see that you have not changed from your cheerful self.'

Oceana looked at her sister with a look of confusion. She pulled her sister aside for a while, and spoke to her in hushed whispers. From where Wham Shell was, he managed to catch this part of their conversation: _You know_ _why we didn't attend his coronation, Marina! Why are you talking like this?_

Marina took a quick glance at her sister. Just a small one. There was a brief flash of an expression other than that polite smile that appeared on her face. Either fear or amusement, from what he could gather.

Marina turned her attention to Nightfall and Sprocket next. To Nightfall's surprise, the siren still had her polite smile on. There was no hint of anything other than friendliness on her face. That was something she never thought she would see in a Northern Siren: a polite smile without a hint of irony or insincerity.

'And you two must be Sprocket and Nightfall. Thanks for agreeing to go on this mission. I understand that this might be out of your comfort zones. Nice to meet you two.' She held her palm out to shake.

Sprocket carefully held out her hand and shook Marina's. No unpleasantness came out of that interaction. Marina then waved at Nightfall. Out of surprise, the dreadwalker waved back. Nightfall glanced over at her sister, who was looking at the two of them with a confused expression.

'Ah, and these two must be Riptide and Echo,' Marina smiled at the two of them. 'I see that you two are ready to embark on this journey.'

The water dragon smiled back. 'Yup. We've been waiting forever to meet you two. Especially Riptide over here.' She gestured towards the fish man, who had a large goofy grin on him.

'Hello, princesses.' He did an exaggerated, but genuine, salute towards them. 'You two won't have to worry your pretty little heads. Me and my friends here will get you to your destination safely. One-hundred percent guaranteed, or my name is Algae Barnacleface. And it's not.'

Marina chuckled. 'Well, thank you for the reassurance and the compliment. I do take pride in my appearance and appreciate when it is appreciated. But unfortunately, my sister and I will only be turning eighteen in a month.'

Oceana decided then that enough was enough. Her twin was just acting so weird today. Must be the lack of sleep. 'Right guys,' she began, grabbing her sister by the arm. 'I think we should really get a move on now. This dry air is really not good for our skin, and we would like to get a move on now. So, come along now. Chop chop.' She climbed back up towards the entrance of the submarine, twin sister in tow.

OoOoOoOoOo

'What were you thinking, Marina? Why did you invite that- That traitor to be among us?!'

Princess Marina was in the cabin she would be sharing with her twin for the journey. The same twin who was looking at her with fury. She wondered if it was safe sleeping in the same room with her tonight…

'Well? Answer me Marina! How did you even get this by father?' Oceana was prancing around the room. There was an aura of stress around her.

Marina kept her polite coolness in the wake of her frantic sister. Internally she was a little worried, this was a risky plan from the start, but there was a part of her that wanted to carry on. She had come so far, might as well finish this. Besides, it was for the main objective after all…

'Well, Oceana,' she begun, 'you technically do not have to treat Wham Shell like he is of equal standing to you. He is defending us from any harm that may come our way on this journey. At best, he could be considered a bodyguard. I used this logic for both father and the Council, and both times it was accepted. Hence, I do not see why you need to worry about Wham Shell accompanying us.'

'Okay, fine. You've got me there. Now second question…'

'Technically fourth question.'

'Whatever! Why did you let that fish man talk to you like that?! You know that everyone warns us against people like that! And for good reason!'

Marina sighed. 'Please Oceana, it was merely a compliment on my appearance. My comment was merely a joke. We were not engaging in any other flirtatious activity of any kind. I fail to see how our banter earlier indicated any sign that we were interested in each other. Was it because he called me pretty? Riptide called you pretty too, there's no need to be envious.'

She observed her sister's expression change ever so slightly. 'I meant it as a joke Oceana. I apologise if that hurt you.'

Oceana rolled her eyes. 'I'm not bothered by that, Marina. I know it was a joke. But you just missed the point of that question entirely! He was just so… Casual with you!'

'Well, I was talking casually with him. I don't see the problem with that.'

'Wha-But, but like you said, they could be considered bodyguards at best! Why were you talking as if you were friends?' At this point, Oceana decided that it was best that she sat down. She fumbled onto her bed.

Marina sat down next to her sister, meeting her at eye level. She put on her best poker face, and said to her: 'Does it really matter? As long as I'm not talking to him as if he had authority over me, I don't see the problem.' Oceana opened her mouth to answer that, but decided that that was a reasonable enough explanation. After all, it could probably be justified as just customary politeness expected from royalty. There was however, one more question she must ask…

'What was a golding and a dreadwalker doing in the Skylanders?'

This question made Marina freeze up. _Shoot, how did I not realise this fatal flaw in the plan?_

She hesitated, formulating her answer for her twin's question. At last, she spoke up. 'Well, it is a very long story. It has some tragedy in it. And I do not think either Sprocket or Nightfall would appreciate you probing them for answers.'

Oceana gave a nod in response to her twin's answer. But something about the way she phrased it made it seem like she was hiding something other than a tragedy. Something that she probably would not like.

She just had to find out what.

'Excuse me sister, but I have to powder my nose.' She excused herself from the bedroom. Oceana searched her memory for any noteworthy incidents in dreadwalker and golding communities, as she made her way down to the control room.

OoOoOoOoOo

Nightfall scanned and the surroundings of the ocean. If she was to be completely honest with herself, she kind of missed this feeling. This serene feeling of navigating through the bottom of the ocean. No high stakes, no unpredictable dangers, just navigating your way through the sea. Although she will probably never get tired of those 'high staked' kind of missions, this feeling that she felt right now was pleasant, in a comforting, nostalgic sense.

She looked around the area, looking at all the colourful schools of fish that filled the area. The waters here were notably warmer than the waters at the Poison Sea, thus most of the fishes were colourful schools of tropical fish. All of them were busily going about their days, swimming in random directions in their respective schools. The entire ocean floor was brimming with huge corals of various shapes and colours; all of them beautiful shades of yellow, pink, turquoise and red. Hidden among them were octopuses, sea sponges, gigantic clams, and starfishes in various colours. It was stunning.

'Well Sprocket, I guess you were right. This escort mission has been pretty peaceful so far.' she said to the golding, who was standing behind her next to the boiler room entrance. She had requested Sprocket to be stationed here. Mainly because it was logical decision, as any damages that happened here could be easily accessed. But also, although she may never admit it, she had gotten used to and enjoyed having company nearby.

'I'm honestly surprised that you don't mind me talking to you throughout the whole journey. Have we all really caused you to develop that much?'

Nightfall shrugged, 'Well, apparently so. I was perfectly happy being a quiet loner, then several knuckleheads and a certain ray of sunshine just had to come into my life and 'show me that my life was nothing without friendship' and all that jazz.'

She turned away from the periscope, turning towards Sprocket with a concerned face. 'But I still can't shake this feeling that I have; that someone or something would happen to make this mission way worse.'

Just as she finished that sentence, there was a knock at the door. Sprocket went towards it and opened it to find Princess Oceana standing there. The princess was wearing a smile; it had too much teeth in it, like a shark.

'Hello, hello you two.' She began in a chirpy tone, still grinning from ear to ear.

'Uh, hello Princess Oceana. How are you?' asked Sprocket, a confused look on her face.

'What brings you down here anyways, Princess? Last time I checked, most Northern Kingdom sirens, especially royalty, don't come down to control panels to help out the crew.' Said Nightfall, most of her attention still focused on the submarine.

'Oh, fine, fine. I apologise for being so quiet earlier. I was simply tired, you know? We had to wake up so early; and our herald, Remora, is not a very good driver. But I'm wide awake now, so why don't we have a little chat?'

'So,' she smiled at Sprocket, showing of her rows of teeth. There was some bright pink lipstick smudged on them, but Sprocket knew better than to tell her about it now. She would save that potential excuse later. 'just a question. A quick, curious question. And that is… what is a golding like you doing in the Skylanders so far away from home?'

Sprocket looked at the princess. She had on one of those smiles that she was all too familiar with; a smile with an ulterior motive. She saw Oceana try to bat her eyelashes innocently, but it just came of as trying too hard.

The golding decided that she could handle this princess. She handled people like her years ago, she could handle her now. 'Well, it's actually kind of a tragic story, Princess. See, a few years ago, my uncle was kidnapped. Kaos had heard about him and decided that he would be the perfect person to help him carry out his evil plans. Of course, my uncle said no; so Kaos planned for his kidnapping to occur when I was out. I came back and I realised that he was gone. I eventually found out that Kaos was behind that plot, so I joined the Skylanders to combat evil and someday, find my uncle and bring him back home.'

Telling only part of the truth might not always be a good thing to do, but sometimes they can be useful. Especially when a person is giving you a dangerously fake smile.

Oceana looked suspiciously at Sprocket after she concluded her tale. 'And is that it?' she asked, batting her long eyelashes.

Sprocket looked at Oceana's teeth; she considered using the lipstick excuse. 'Uhh… Well…'

'Leave her alone, Princess.' said Nightfall darkly, her hair raising.

Oceana turned her attention to the dreadwalker. 'On a related note, what is a dreadwalker doing here in the Skylanders? Wasn't Fogshadow Tower destroyed a while back?'

Nightfall sighed, 'Yes, Princess.'

'It was a Leviathan attack? Was it not?'

'Yes. It was.'

'Someone tried to go after it when it broke through the surface, didn't she? And I have heard from various sources that she was a strange one to begin with.' Oceana sat down next to Nightfall. 'Like, she would often sneak out and explore the Poison Sea. I wondered why she would even bother though, it's not like there's anything nice out there to see. It's all just gross looking fishes and eels. What sort of crazy person does that?' Her tone made it sound like she was joking.

Nightfall felt her grip onto the steering wheel tighten. She took a deep breath. 'I suppose she just found her life living trapped in a lofty old tower unbelievably dull, Princess.'

'Even so, is that any reason to go out there almost every single day, not caring for the health and safety rules that were implemented in her community for a reason? Why, I heard after the Leviathan attack, she went her separate way from the other dreadwalkers! Could you believe that? And I heard that she hunts for a living. Can you imagine that? Not only is she turning against the ways of her people, but she's doing so in such a reckless manner! Such a careless individual.'

Nightfall sighed, but managed to keep her composure. Barely. 'Apparently so.' She was surprised that Oceana still had not put two and two together, it should be rather obvious who this 'rogue dreadwalker' was.

'Can you believe it, though? She seems so… chaotic. I have heard rumours that she deliberately staged the attack; from what I have heard, that does seem likely. I don't think she would have cared.'

Up until now, Nightfall had been able to tolerate the Princess' comments. But that last statement was the straw that broke the camel's back. 'I-She would never do that!' She snapped at Oceana.

Oceana raised her eyebrows, shocked at that sudden outburst. Then her expression shifted slowly into a smug smile. 'Ah, my suspicions have been confirmed.'

Nightfall tensed up at the way she said that. 'You knew?'

'I had a hunch. Although I couldn't be sure. There was only one way to know about it. From the way you kept giving me justifications to her behaviour and your body language, I knew that I was right.

'So, would you care to tell me more about your friend,' said Oceana 'Nightfall.' Her smile was as sweet as artificial sweetener.

Nightfall regained her composure, embarrassed that she even lost it, and replied in the calmest voice she could muster: 'Why is it important?'

Oceana could no longer keep herself in character. She walked up to the dreadwalker, and asked her rudely, 'What is your friend doing here? Answer me, Nightfall.'

Sprocket had been observing the two of them from her corner. Sensing where this conversation was going, she intervened. 'Stop bugging her, Princess. I'll tell you myself.'

Oceana smiled. 'Well, this should be interesting.'

'You want to know what I'm doing here, don't you? Well, here's why.' She began her tale.

'Me and my uncle weren't interested in riches and wealth. We were more interested in building and fixing things. We were engineers. Our family discouraged us from doing it, they said that it hurt their reputation. But we didn't care. Then one day Kaos heard about his inventions and decided that those inventions would be perfect for taking over Skylands. My uncle refused, he wouldn't take any bribes either. He had too much integrity for that. So Kaos went with his plan B for almost everything. When I found out that he was kidnapped, I wanted to ask my other family members to help, but they refused to. When I found out that he was kidnapped by Kaos, I decided to seek out the Skylanders so that I could join them and fight against evil.'

She concluded her story. 'Now, unless you stop treating my friend rudely, you are welcomed to leave.'

Oceana scoffed, 'Like I would believe that story, golding. Last time I checked the records in golding civilisations, there have been no reports in regards to kidnappings. Not in recent history at least.' She glared at Nightfall. 'So tell me, what is she doing here?'

Nightfall didn't reply at first. She was attempting to drown out her surroundings in the submarine and focus her attention outside. 'She's telling the truth.' She replied eventually.

'Nonsense. I checked the records, no such incident happened.'

Sprocket sighed. Her uncle had not been officially classified as a missing person. She believed that her other family members might be behind it. Why was she not surprised, the two of them had always been treated as black sheep in their family, why wouldn't they stop acknowledging their existence the first chance they got.

'I have been patient with you Nightfall, up until now. You left your home and people, deliberately subjected yourself to dangers in both the past and present, and now you try to go along with this lie. I have been nice to you. And I will give you one last chance, so tell me the truth.' She spoke to her like she was six.

She decided that she had enough of Oceana's condescending attitude towards her. 'She speaks the truth Oceana. Now, unless you can stop being rude, get out of this room.'

The princess gasped. 'How dare you order me out of a room, as if _you_ have any authority over _me_.' She grabbed Nightfall by the wrist, causing the two of them to face each other eye to eye. 'Now tell me the actual truth.'

'Don't treat my friend like that.' Sprocket pried the princess away from Nightfall. 'Also, you have lipstick on your teeth.'

Oceana went red in the face, partially out of anger, but also out of humiliation. 'Well, fine! If you two are going to be like that, I see no reason for me to waste my time here.' She stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind her.

Nightfall sunk into her chair, a sense of gloom surrounded her. The tension in the air then was so thick you could cut it with a knife.

Sprocket observed her friend, not knowing what to say to her. After that little encounter, she knew that there was not much that she could do to make her feel better about this situation.

This was going to be a long mission.

OoOoOoOoOo

 **Hey guys, chapter two is out now. I hope you enjoyed it. I was home sick for a couple of days, so that gave me a lot of time to write and rewrite the chapter. A shout out to RainStorm14, or as she prefers to be called, RainStorm. If you guys don't know, I edit her fanfics, and she has been giving me the drive to finish this chapter.**

 **As usual, thanks for reading. Comments are appreciated as long as they are civil. And have a nice day.**

 **-Tabbyluna**


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

'Three in the morning, and you're still driving? Are you sure you wouldn't want me to take over?' Asked Sprocket.

Nightfall turned towards the groggy golding. 'No need. I can handle it.'

She turned her attention towards a small ceramic mug that was sitting near her. She noted that it was almost out of coffee. This problem had to be solved; she had hoped to carry on driving as fast as she could to avoid any more encounters with _some_ people.

'There is something you could help me with, though.' She said, picking up the mug. 'Could you please go to the pantry and refill this with some coffee?'

'Anything that I need to add?'

'No, plain black is good enough. Thanks.'

At that, Sprocket left the control room, mug in one hand, flashlight in the other. As she walked to the pantry, she looked at the little bit of black sludge remaining in the cup with disgust. _Ugh…_ _How does she even drink this?_ She wondered. She had been watching Nightfall drink this concoction ever since midnight, trying to stay awake, and in between the strong smell and the slimy texture, she questioned if her friend's sense of taste was alright. Maybe it was the dark element affecting her.

She entered the pantry, using her flashlight to find the coffee machine. While looking for it, she found herself standing face to face with a familiar figure.

'Hello, Sprocket. What are you doing here late at night?' asked Princess Marina. She was seated on a small chair, and she seemed to be weaving ropes and shells into what looks like a large net. A dim glowing pearl-in-a-clam was her only light source.

Sprocket relaxed once she realized that she was talking to Marina, not her twin. 'Hey Princess. Just came here to get some coffee.'

'Go ahead. I found the coffee machine filled with this disgusting substance when I came down here. I washed it out.' She gestured towards the emptied coffee pot, which had been cleaned out and was now placed on the counter top.

The golding chuckled, 'Heh, thanks Princess. I have no idea how she drinks stuff like that.' She looked around the cabinets for some pre-ground coffee beans. Sure enough, sitting between a tin of hard biscuits and canned vegetables was a small, sealed packet which read _Night Brew- The Perfect All-Nighter Drink for Sailors and Captains of Their Own Ship. Not recommended for ages sixteen and younger._ A picture of a grinning owl was on the cover. This caused Sprocket to wonder why people drew birds with teeth. Do people think it's cute or something? It never really made much sense to her.

'So, my sister told me that she had a little run-in with you and Nightfall earlier today,' Marina starting a conversation with her snapped Sprocket back to reality. 'she had some, well, less than pleasant thing to say about the encounter. But I know that Oceana can be a bit of a "drama queen" sometimes, and I was hoping that I might be able to get the other side of the story. Would you care to tell me what happened?' She asked, an attentive look in her eyes.

As Sprocket brewed the coffee, she told Marina about how her twin had come into the control room and began asking questions about their histories. About how she acted like she was friendly and sincere when it was clear that she was not. About how she acted like she was above Nightfall once she found out about her past.

'So now Nightfall's on this speed drive to get to the AARCC. She's refused to let me take over or anything, she's just blazing through the route as fast as I will let her go.' She sat down next to the princess, who was currently weaving a small conch shell into the net.

'Mmm… Yes, that does sound bad.' Marina sighed, 'I apologize for her behavior. I thought the way she described her side of the story seemed very exaggerated, thanks for providing me with your accounts. I'll try to talk to her about it when she gets up.'

Sprocket nodded.

'Anyways, since you are here, would you care to share any stories about your experiences with the Skylanders? I would love to hear about any anecdotes or adventures that you have been on.'

As the coffee brew, Sprocket recounted on a past mission that she had been on; Marina listened attentively, all while weaving a myriad of different seashells into the net.

'We didn't really have a way to escape Kaos' lair, so Flynn drove the Dread Yacht through his roof! In my opinion, it was the second-best thing that that cursed ship did.'

Her thoughts drifted towards the net Marina was weaving. 'That's a nice net there.'

'Thanks! The people in my kingdom think that weaving this net is like a 'hobby', but I like to think that it's a little more than that…'

The hum that the coffee machine had been making stopped. 'Oh, hold on. I have to get this to Nightfall quickly. Bye Marina.' The golding emptied the mug of its contents, rinsed it, and poured in the steaming, black liquid.

'Goodnight Sprocket. Say hello to Nightfall for me.' The siren smiled at Sprocket. She grinned back and exited the pantry.

Marina yawned, exhausted. She wondered if it was safe to enter the bedroom again. After thinking about it, she reached for the pot of coffee and a small cup, and began to take slow, small, unpleasant sips of the bitter drink.

OoOoOoOoOo

Echo looked around the room. It was five in the morning, and Wham-Shell and Riptide were still asleep. Now obviously, if you want to be considerate and listen to music as loud as possible at five in the morning while there are other people in the room, you bring along some headphones. Echo knew that she brought her set along with her for this mission; she usually had several on her. But for whatever reason, they seemed to have disappeared. She could have sworn that she packed it in with her yesterday…

After digging through her bag once more, she resigned herself to the fact that her earphones were lost. Or at the very least, misplaced. She sighed. _Well this is a bummer._ She had wanted to use this time to listen to this undead artist that Fiesta recommended to her.

She looked at her phone, reading the title of the song and the artist. _Lavida Loca- No Fighting Featuring Fiesta and The Amigos._ He said that he collaborated with her on this song years ago, back before he worked for Count Moneybone. Fiesta had told her that she had gone on to become a huge star in the underworld; she was a very lovely and professional person in real life too.

While she was lost in thought, her muscle memory kicked in, and she pressed play on the music video. The room was immediately filled with the sound of dance music played at the highest volume. Trumpets blasted, drums pounded, and Lavida Loca sang. Of course, this woke up Wham and Riptide.

'Ahh… Sorry guys!' The water dragon gave a sheepish smile. 'My claw must have slipped.'

'What is this song anyways? And is… Is that Fiesta singing?' Asked Riptide, he had fallen out of the bed the moment the music started, and was now untangling himself from his blanket.

'It's this old song from the underworld, and yes, that is Fiesta singing, he helped write and produce this song.' She paused the video. Suddenly, there was a knock on the door.

Wham-Shell opened the door to find their third passenger standing there fully dressed. He wore a tired expression on his face, and had an apron wrapped around him.

'Good morning to you too.' He mumbled. 'Personally, I would have preferred to have been woken up by my alarm clock, but I suppose this is fine as well.'

'Did you sleep in those clothes?' Asked Riptide, noticing the wrinkles and folds in his clothing.

Remora haughtily dismissed his question. 'That is not important now, young man. Now if you don't mind, I have some breakfast to prepare.' He left with his nose in the air.

'Geez, what's up with that guy?' Asked Echo.

'That guy's the princesses' herald, Remora. I don't remember much about him, but I do distinctly remember him lecturing me about playing with my baby sister when my mother was having a serious discussion with other queens. Something about "responsibilities" and "duty".' Replied Wham-Shell.

Suddenly, the submarine shook violently. The three Skylanders grabbed the first thing they could to stabilize themselves. A panicked voice rang through the room, 'Guys, we're being ambushed! Echo, Riptide, Wham-Shell, please get to the control room now! Everyone else, please do not panic; we will do everything we can do to fix this problem. Please head to the control room after we tell you to.' Stressed Nightfall.

The Skylanders immediately made their way up to the control room. When they got there, another strong convulsion hit the vehicle. Nightfall helped Sprocket off the floor, then faced the newcomers with a worried expression.

'Alright guys, so here's the plan: Sprocket, you will pilot this at a speed of about thirty meters per minute. Keep driving as much as possible. If anyone were to come in here to panic, please try to calm them down. The rest of you, you will come outside with me to fight the brutes attacking us. We will leave through the emergency exit.'

Immediately, Sprocket took the wheel from her and Nightfall continued her briefing along the way.

'So up there are two Squidface Brutes and an eel up there; I couldn't see much, but from the looks of it, they seemed to be part of some gang. They were wearing identical jackets with some symbol on it.'

'What did it look like?' Asked Wham, gripping his mace.

'It was some sort of navy blue circle with a white anchor in the middle.' She recalled.

Wham-Shell thought about it. Her description sounded familiar, he has certainly seen something like that before, but where?

Then it hit him, 'Sailor Scouts! These are the Southern Sailor Scouts!'

'Sailor Scouts?' Questioned Riptide, 'Why would a gang name themselves after a group of little girls that sell Coral Crumblies and Pearl Jam Sandwiches?'

'Yeah, I've heard of these guys before. The guy that started it was apparently the son of some other notorious gang leader, I think. Not sure why he would name his own gang after the Sailor Scouts of all things.' Added Echo.

'Heh, maybe-'

'Guys! Focus!' Called out Nightfall, as she entered one of the escape tubes. Wham-Shell followed suit into another. Then finally Riptide and Echo squeezed into their respective tubes.

'Okay, Sprocket. Fire away!' Called Nightfall into a small device that she had strapped on before leaving. The four of them were immediately launched outside the began to climb up the submarine, ready to face these 'Sailor Scouts'.

Upon reaching the top, their three opponents faced them. Like Nightfall had said, there were two Brutes, dressed in tattered pirate garb, their jackets showing off the Sailor Scouts badge. There was also an electric eel who looked like their leader, as he was dressed in better quality clothing along with his jacket. He also wore a chain with several whistles on it. His shocked expression slowly twisted into a smug grin.

'So, these are the new escorts for the Northern Siren Kingdom brats?' He snorted. 'I'd seen some weird choices for escorts before, but this is new. King Horseface decided that regular ol' guards ain't good enough, huh? Needs some special elite team to protect his precious little brats?'

'What do you want?' Snarled Nightfall. 'Whatever it is, you can't have it. It's best if you don't waste your time and just go back to where you came from.'

He grinned. 'Ooh! Lookie here boys, Little Missy here thinks she's tough. Ain't that adorable?'

His smile curled into a frown when Nightfall grabbed his neck with her hair, pulling him towards her.

'Ya seriously think you'll scare me?' He said, in a soft tone. 'I've faced worse than you.'

'Dude, if I were you, I wouldn't dig myself deeper.' Called Riptide from the back.

The gang leader shrugged, 'Well, if you were me, maybe I'd stop. But I'm not.' He grabbed the cutlass from his belt and positioned it over her hair, 'And I can fight good too.'

The battle officially started. Nightfall had let go of the leader before he gave her an unwanted haircut and began duelling him. When he noticed that he also had a gun in his belt, Wham-Shell ran to assist her. Echo and Riptide attacked the Brutes. Riptide came after them with a giant swordfish. In a moment of confusion as to where he had stored the fish (How deep are his pockets?), the two were hit in the face by a series of bubble bombs. Soon, they each felt a series of sharp stabs in their sides; then a hard blow to the stomach. More bubbles, more stabs. Bubbles. Stabs. Another strong hit in the gut. The two of them heard an ear-bleeding loud scream targeted towards them, knocking them both off their feet. Somehow, through their ringing ears, they heard someone cry out 'Wait! Riptide! NO!' Then one of them felt himself being flattened by a thing that smelt like a fish.

Riptide pulled his orca away to inspect the Brute pancake that he had made. In front of him, Echo was working on the other Brute. She had let out a siren scream, causing him to cover his ears in pain. She sent out another several bubble bombs, all of which ended up hitting him hard in the face.

Riptide grinned at his friend, and pulled out a large tuna to help her. He went down easily with a couple of hits and a few more bubble bombs. _Strange_ , thought Echo, _these guys were way too easy to defeat._ She turned towards Riptide to bring up this point. He was doing his victory dance on top of their recently defeated enemy. 'Riptide!' called out Echo, 'Get down here, please help me gather these two and bring them inside. You can do your victory dance in there, with musical accompaniment, I promise.'

Riptide stopped mid-chicken dance and started pulling out ropes from his deep pockets. Together the two of them began to tie up the brutes.

OoOoOoOoOo

Sprocket took a deep breath. After everyone else had left, the twins and Remora ran into the control room. Remora was looking downright neurotic, and the twins seemed to be in the middle of a conversation. She thought that they were talking about the current battle that was going on. She could not hear what their conversation was about though, so with this assumption, she told everyone 'Don't worry too much guys. Whatever's up there is probably nothing that the four of them can't handle.' Truth be told, she was feeling just as nervous as everyone else in the room; she was partially reassuring herself.

The twins were still whispering within themselves with that hushed, anxious tone. Sprocket though that they were taking about the current battle, but within five minutes, the conversation escalated quickly into a screaming match. The twins were locking horns, and Sprocket finally knew exactly what they were talking about.

'All I'm saying, Oceana, is that you need to treat the Skylanders with a little respect!'

'Oh please, you know what such chaos would do to people like us. They are a negative influence, and that's why we cannot mix with people like that. Our teachers and parents have been telling us this ever since we were little, for crying out loud!'

'Even so-'

 _THUD!_

The sound rang through the now silent control room. It sounded like it came from above the boiler room. After a few minutes, there was another loud _THUD_. Sprocket decided to go into the boiler room to check if everything was running smoothly.

'Mr Remora, could you please take the wheel from me?' She turned towards the panicking siren, who was clutching his heart. He gave a nervous nod.

'Great. Thanks.' She got out of the chair and headed towards the boiler room, tool kit in hand.

She ran into the room, taking in her surroundings. The shining pipes made fast whistling noises, as they pumped air and water to the rest of the sub. An electric generator sat at the corner of the room, letting electricity flow through the place. There was a faint light in this room, and by that light, she saw that all the right parts were running like they should, moving in perfect order. Most importantly, the engine was still up and running. As long as the engine was unharmed, they should be fine.

She looked up, there was a large Squidface Brute- shaped dent up there. She hoped that it doesn't affect the pressure hull. She did the appropriate measurements and concluded that they would be able to keep travelling for a little while longer, but she might need to repair it once they get there.

Sprocket sighed. It was an amazing feeling, being surrounded by all this technology; She felt "in the zone" in a way. She wished that she could just wander and explore around here a little longer. This place was a mechanic wonderland.

 _But first things first._ She thought of that phrase; her uncle always used to say it. With a determined look on her face, she forced herself away from the maze of pipes and headed back to the control room. She could still hear some thumps coming from above. _Hope everything's alright up there._ She thought.

OoOoOoOoOo

The two fighters fought tooth and nail. But it was harder than either of them anticipated. Whenever Nightfall got close enough to attack him, he would try to slash at her causing her to dodge, and vice versa. The dreadwalker had tried to use her teleportation powers on him, but he proved to be more spatially aware than she had expected. Every move she made was countered by another action on his part, as if he was expecting it.

Wham-Shell observed their fight from a distance. He had been shooting starfish at Mr Gang leader, but he kept missing. He had to be careful when shooting; he didn't want to hurt his friend, and she was always in a close proximity with him. He watched as Nightfall turned into shadows again, trying to confuse him this time. It was at this point that Mr Gang leader finally decided he was tired of their stalemate, and he whipped out his gun.

Upon seeing this, Wham-Shell ran towards Mr Gang leader. He pushed Nightfall towards the side, then hit him square on the head, knocking him off his feet. Mr Gang leader had let go off the trigger by accident, shooting through the hull of the submarine. He lay there for a while, panting heavy breaths. Then he opened his eyes. He reacted quickly, if somewhat clumsily. He clambered onto his feet and aiming the barrel right at the crustacean.

Nightfall got up feeling like her head was spinning. The world was a shaking mess. She could barely remember what had happened before the fall, it was all just a rush. But from the corner of her eye, she saw the eel aiming that gun at Wham-Shell. Her memories immediately rushed back; she remembered the struggle she had with that guy. And she could not let him end Wham-Shell like that! Nightfall dashed towards them and slashed at Mr Gang leader with her hooks. At that point, he was already dizzy from hitting his head and was letting pure anger fuel him. He had lost the concentration that he had had earlier when he was fighting with her. And with one quick movement…

 _SLICE!_

His pinky finger was cut clean off. The gun flying off the submarine with it.

The eel looked at his hand in shock. He looked at the crustacean and dreadwalker, mortified and angry. He was about to call out to the Brutes, but he saw that they were tied up. Their captors, Riptide and Echo, had just finished tying them up. They had looked up the second the shot was fired, but the next few moments had happened so quickly, and they could not just leave the brutes unattended.

With his gang captured, his gun and finger lost, and his pride wounded, Mr Gang leader took whatever dignity he had left and made his escape by jumping off the submarine and disappearing into the nearby seaweed fields. When he had left, the four of them took his two mooks into the submarine.

When they came in, they were faced with more bad news. 'The engine's been shot guys.' Said Sprocket. 'We're gonna need another one, and we might also need to repair the pressure hull too.' If the hull got more damaged, it would not be a problem for the others, but it would be a matter of life and death for her.

Luckily, there was a small town near where they were. However, it was a five hour walk, ten hours both ways. The Skylanders had set out to get the right parts needed, with only Riptide and Echo staying behind to look after the princesses and Remora. Echo gave one more look through her bag, and finally found her headphones buried deep inside. She pulled them out and plugged them in. Soon loud music was pumping through her ears. She kept her eyes peeled for any dangers.

Riptide found himself talking with Marina again. The Princess had wanted to hear about his heroic adventures before and during his time with the Skylanders. This was a topic that the fish-man was more than happy to talk about. Eventually the conversation derailed into common fighting methods, and how he learnt them.

'Sooo, I have done a little reading about fighting methods before. But that's a weird way to learn how to fight. You don't learn how to do proper stances and stuff, and those books don't even have pictures to show you. So, I still think it's just best to learn by doing.'

'So, you think that the art of combat is best learnt through kinaesthetic learning?'

'Uhh… Yeah, what you said.'

'I see. Thank you for this insight. It was very interesting.' Marina smiled at Riptide.

'Hey, Princess? Why do you know so much about combat? I never thought you would know about all this stuff.'

Marina replied politely. 'I read up on this topic. Nothing stops me from doing that. As long as it is approved by the court, I can read it.'

Riptide shrugged, 'Whatever floats your boat, I guess.' He looked up at her again. 'By the way, do you know how to play Go Fish? Star Strike says I can't just win by throwing an orca on the table.'

OoOoOoOoOo

After going through the local garage, they had found the right parts that they needed to repair the submarine. Unfortunately, repairing the vehicle would take up more time than they had wanted. 'I'm going to have to work through the night. You'll have to camp out here for the night.'

Oceana protested, 'But surely there must be something we can do! Someway we can get there faster?'

'As a matter of fact, there is something you can do, Princess.' Called out Nightfall. 'It's called pitching your tent.'

Wham-Shell gave her a nudge to remind her to hold her tongue. The two of them were currently pitching and sharing a tent. Oceana looked for her twin, Marina was grouped with Remora, and the fish-man was going to be keeping watch. That left her with the water dragon. She could live with that, after all, out of all the Skylanders here, she found her the most tolerable. But there was something familiar about her that she could not put her finger on.

'Hi Princess.' The water dragon smiled at her. She had already begun building the frame of the tent, and was trying to fit the cloth neatly. 'You wouldn't mind helping me, would you?'

Oceana held her hand up. 'No, I cannot physically help you do that.' She picked up a set of instructions off the floor. 'However, I can supervise.' She spent the rest of the evening reading instructions to the water dragon. Echo decided to be patient with her, setting up their tent all by herself.

Later that evening, in the tent that Echo had pitched by herself, the water dragon asked the princess about her being unhelpful earlier. 'I know that your kingdom followed a culture like that, but couldn't you have helped? Even a little bit?'

The princess sighed, 'What was the point? You finished pitching this tent around the same time everyone else did, and I did help you with brain-work. Like a proper ruler should be doing.'

Echo may be very patient, but she was no pushover. 'Your sister helped Sprocket just now, I didn't see any complaints about that.'

'I think that Marina was simply blinded by hero worship.' Replied Oceana. 'For example, that golding that she was helping earlier? She's a dreadful liar. I think she told some tall tale about her uncle, but no records show that any kidnappings might have happened. I suspect that she was simply lying.'

The princess stretched and yawned, 'I swear, you're the best Skylander that Marina requested. Everyone else is so difficult. The rest are just the type of people that no one should try to mix with. The type of people who need more control on what they do and say.'

Echo found her blood boiling at the way Oceana was talking about her friends behind their backs. But she knew better than to lose her temper. 'Mm hmm… You know what, it's late. Why don't we go to bed now?'

'Sure. Goodnight.' Within five minutes, she was out. But a small part of her mind was still searching through her memories, looking for where she had seen this water dragon before. She recalled yesterday, when Marina was greeting everyone else. She tried to remember what her name was. _It was Ecto, was it not? Wait no, it was Elektra? No, no it was…_ This carried on throughout the night.

Then it hit her, _Echo! Her name is Echo!_

She got up with a start. The last person she had read about with the name Echo was a water dragon from the Kingdom of Margarite . She was a notorious rule-breaker. She would constantly listen to music and sing at a high volume, despite numerous warnings against that. She looked closely at the dragon, inspecting her seahorse-like appearance. She definitely looked like she came from that region. And she did hear her singing loudly throughout the afternoon. That meant that the dragon sleeping beside her was a frequent rule-breaker, and she had just spent the night sleeping in the same tent with her.

She reacted the way any self-respecting Northern Siren Kingdom royal would react.

'NOOOOOOOO!'

To be continued

OoOoOoOoOo

 **Finally got another chapter out. It's been a busy few weeks for me, but this is a slightly longer chapter than average, so I hope it makes up. I'll be way more free in the coming weeks anyway, so expect more updates.**

 **-Tabbyluna**


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

For the second night in a row, Nightfall did not sleep. She tried, but the thoughts of their attacker kept her awake. Eventually, she gave up trying to sleep and decided to do some research on Mr Gang Leader. When she woke up, she had found Wham-Shell already wide awake, looking through old newspaper records about Mr Gang Leader.

'His name is Taser Volt, age 25. He's the son of notorious gang leader Static Volt, leader of the Electro-Shocks. Taser's gang formed and started doing their misdeeds a few years back, but unlike his dad, most of these are just reports of light skirmishes. Like small roadside muggings.' Read Wham-Shell from his phone.

'Hmm…' Nightfall searched for the name "Static Volt", and she immediately got results from multiple news sources. Most of those reports were about major crimes; large-scale robberies, kidnapping and holding people at a ransom, vandalism costing cities millions of dollars. After skimming through the hundreds of articles about this criminal that had slipped under their radar, she looked up his son to see what he had done. Needless to say, Taser Volt did not inherit his father's 'talent'.

'Good grief, why does he keep doing these crimes?' She thought out loud as she looked through endless newspaper records. 'He's not even any good at it, considering he keeps getting arrested for these petty crimes.' That was the most impressive thing about the reports, she felt. With several exceptions, Skyland's law enforcement was generally not competent enough to get rid of any gang of villains without help from the Skylanders. Or, if they were lucky, a brave soul (And potential new teammate) from that area. The fact that he kept getting arrested without their intervention (he wasn't even on their radar) was proof that he wasn't cut out for the job.

Wham-Shell shrugged, his brows furrowed in annoyed confusion 'Heck if I knew, it could be for any number of reasons-'

He was interrupted by the sound of a loud 'NOOOOOOOO!' coming from the outside. The two of them immediately sprang into action, running outside with their weapons in hand. Rip Tide was already outside, wielding his swordfish. He was running towards Echo's tent, as that seemed to be where the loud screeching sound was coming from.

To everyone's surprise, the sound came from Princess Oceana, who ran out of the tent screaming. Echo ran out after her, concerned and confused. 'What happened? What's going on here?' She asked.

Oceana gave the water dragon a look of contempt. 'You,' She began, 'why didn't you tell me?'

'Tell you what?'

'That you were that water dragon from the Margarite Kingdom! The destructive one that brought noise and disorder to an otherwise orderly kingdom!' The princess looked downright livid.

'Yes, I am. So what? Is that really a good enough reason to wake us up at three in the morning?'

'Well, for someone like me, yes!' Went the princess. 'Someone of my pedigree should not even be seen with someone like you! Or anyone here for that matter. I cannot believe any of you can be considered one of Skylands' greatest heroes!'

The water dragon narrowed her eyes. 'People like us, huh?' She stormed off. 'I'll be with Sprocket.'

Rip Tide wanted to tell Princess Oceana to not treat his friend like that. He knew roughly what he wanted to say, but he could not find the right words to get that painfully smug smirk off her face. He stood there, trying to form a good argument, wishing he was better at this.

The siren's smug look caused Nightfall's blood to boil. She gripped her hook, and was about to give the princess a piece of her mind, when she felt someone grip her arm. She turned around to see Wham-Shell giving her a look that said ' _Let me handle this.'_ She was about to protest, but then he walked up to Oceana, a determined aura about him.

Wham-Shell went up to the princess. 'If I were you, Princess, I'd treat everyone here with some respect. Everyone here may not be able to live up to your standards, but they can all be considered more noble and respectable than you are.'

In response, Oceana glared at him. 'Please.' She snorted, 'I will treat all of you how I wish to. None of you have given me a reason to do otherwise, so why should I treat you with the respect you have not earned?' She flicked a manicured finger at his forehead.

At this point, Rip Tide and Nightfall would have done something about the princess by now. They were about to, but before they could tell her off, the sound of Echo calling them over, saying the repairs were done, interrupted them. This woke Remora and Marina up and reminded them all that they had a mission to complete. They simply exchanged dark glares, and headed over to the newly repaired submarine.

OoOoOoOoOo

'Man, does she always act like that?' Asked Rip Tide. He was currently shuffling a small pack of cards.

'Unfortunately, yes. One time she yelled at a squid from a neighboring kingdom because he was jaywalking.' Marina did not dare to make eye contact while talking. She looked down at her nails, embarrassed for her sister.

Echo was seated right beside them, punk rock blaring through her earpiece. It was at a high volume, but not so loud that she could not hear what they were talking about. She made a mental note to thank Wham-Shell for standing up for her.

'Did she scream as loud as she did just now?' That siren had quite a set of lungs. It was almost impressive.

'Well, she is a siren, Rip Tide.' Wham-Shell commented. 'They all tend to have powerful voices. With a little training, she could be a truly formidable force.'

Rip Tide distributed the cards evenly between everyone, sans Echo. 'Heh, well, it doesn't really matter, does it. Training or not, it's not like she would ever do something like become a Skylander or anything like that, so that's a relief.'

The table erupted with laughter, although Marina was somewhat laughing somewhat nervously. A though that she had never considered before struck her. 'Rip Tide, Wham-Shell,' She began, 'totally random question, but you know how certain Skylanders are of royal blood? Well, do you know who's running the kingdoms?'

The two of them took a minute to think about their answer. That was a good question, running a kingdom and defending the Skylands were more than full-time jobs all by themselves. They searched their memories, recalling to see if they have heard their friends mention anything about it.

'Well, my younger siblings are helping to re-establish our kingdom. I check in on them whenever I can.' Said Wham-Shell, 'If memory serves, Punk Shock's cousin is now the heir of the throne, Swarm isn't really an eligible heir, and King Mercurus is still king of Metallana, and it doesn't look like that would change anytime soon.'

'Yeah, it's something like that, right?' Rip Tide said. 'Let's play.' He wanted to forget about their little encounter.

Marina faced her cards, 'So, do you have any twos?'

Rip Tide remembered what he had read in the rules earlier. 'Go fish. Got any aces?'

Marina pulled out an ace of spades, a half smile on her face.

'That was kinda random. Why did you ask that suddenly?' asked the fish-man.

Marina smiled, 'Oh, it's a little hard to explain. But a though came up to me, and I wanted to consider my options.'

'What do you mean?'

'Well,' She began, 'It's a long story. Let's start from the beginning. It all started with my father. He was always a little overprotective of my twin and I. Even now. It took a lot of convincing for him to let us attend this event with you guys as body guards. He usually has several guards from his own stock come and bring us there.'

She shuffled the cards in her hand. 'I think part of the reason why he's letting us have you guys with us is because of an incident that happened at our last birthday. It's related to what I want to talk to you guys about.'

'Really? What happened?'

She bit her lip. 'Well, last year, I was asked by one of my best friends what I would like for my birthday. He was a member of the guard- well, he was a guard in training- and I asked for a sword. It took quite a bit of begging and pleading, but he came around to it. We had arranged for the two of us to meet at the edge of the kingdom for him to give me my present. But, for whatever reason, I forgot to consider some very important things.

'When I was about to leave the castle, for whatever reason I did not consider that he would be there, but there my father was. He asked me what I was doing, about to leave the castle unsupervised right before my seventeenth birthday. I froze; I couldn't come up with a decent excuse, so I had no choice but to come back in. The birthday celebration was going to be in an hour, and I spent that remaining time getting ready for it.'

She paused, took a sip of water, and continued.

'At the party, I saw him at the doorway- he was called in for guard duty. So, I signaled to him that I would come over to where he was. But first, I had to fight my way through the myriad of guest who wanted to talk to me. I had failed to consider that since it was my birthday, the guest would want to socialize with me. Usually I wouldn't mind all the socializing, but I really wanted my present. The party could wait.

'Eventually I made my way across the room. When I thought that no one in the room was looking or listening, I asked him about my present. We then devised a new plan right there on the spot. It was not as well planned as our previous plan, which probably should have been our first hint that it would not end well.'

She watched the Skylanders' expressions. Rip Tide was had been listening eagerly throughout the story, and was at the edge of his seat, listening with anticipation. Wham-Shell had also been listening attentively, his large blue eyes showed his interest, although not as much as Rip did.

'Later that evening, he came up to my room. He knocked at the door in a pattern we specified earlier, signalling his arrival. I opened the door and invited him in, and he handed me the sword. It was not wrapped, but there was a striped blueish-white and red ribbon tied up in a bow. Bless his heart, he was such a kind friend. At that moment, I exchanged a hug with him, and whispered a "thank you" to him. Unfortunately, right at that moment, Oceana walked in on our embrace. I had forgotten to close the door, and my sister saw me with my friend, a guard in training, touching each other with a weapon on my bed. For whatever reason, I had foolishly assumed that my sister would still be downstairs partying at eleven at night. In hindsight, it was a most idiotic misjudgement of character.

'That got us both into quite a bit of trouble. My friend even almost lost his position as a guard. Even though things eventually worked out in the end- we were both able to convince my family and The Council that that hug was nothing but platonic, and that I had engaged it- it was a very close call for the two of us. He was only sentenced to two hundred hours of community service thankfully, and I almost had the sword confiscated, but eventually, I was given permission to keep it after some persuasion.'

She finished her story. 'So, that was just the beginning. Well, in a way. I still have the sword; I even brought it with me right now.'

'Really? Can we see it then?' Asked Rip Tide eagerly. He was always interested in strange and cool weapons.

She nodded, and walked into a small corridor leading to her room. After twenty minutes, she returned to the room, carrying a small case made of fabric that one usually uses to carry guitars. She unzipped the case and pulled out the beautiful weapon. The polished silver gleamed in the bright lights, the handle was decorated with the pattern of seashells, and the kingdom's emblem of a starfish was fitted neatly in the center of it. The handle was sharp, making the sword almost double-edged. It was a truly formidable weapon.

'Wow!' Went Rip Tide, a sense of wonder and amazement filled his face. 'This must be from the Age of Scorpio!' He said, noting the acute sharpness of the blades, and how it looks as if any part of the sword could be used as a lethal weapon. He remembered seeing a sword almost identical to that in an old book he owned. He read that book, The Complete History of Undersea Swords, years ago, but he always remembered the swords.

'Yes, it probably is.' Commented Wham-Shell. 'But why would you even want a sword in the first place?'

'I was about to get to that, Wham-Shell.' Said Marina. 'Now, as you know, I had requested for the five of you to escort my twin sister and I to the AARCC. My reason to my father, The Council, and anybody who asked was because I was going to turn eighteen very soon. This would be an excellent opportunity for me to learn and experience what other parts of Skylands resort to in terms of defense.'

She took a deep breath, 'But there is one other reason why I had wanted all of you to come, and that is-'

She was interrupted by the submarine abruptly stopping. It shook the table, spilling cards all over the floor. It was also strong enough to knock our heroes off their chairs.

'Aw, geez.' Said Echo as she got up from the floor, 'What the heck is going on now?'

OoOoOoOoOo

Nightfall strained her tired eyes through the periscope. They were currently passing by a small town inhabited by mostly gillmen. She observed them from the distance, all of them were too wrapped up in their own lives to notice the gigantic submarine just outside their village. She tried to pull her attention back to the road, but her exhausted mind left her eyes wandering towards the town next to them. Maybe it was because she was so tired, along with the stress of dealing with a _certain someone_ on this mission, that drew her into the small town's atmosphere. This was a humble village, with villagers working, looking after families, catching up with friends, running and screaming for their lives…

Wait, what?

She adjusted the periscope to see if it was just a trick of the eye. _It might just be the lack of sleep._ She thought. Unfortunately, it was not. All around the village, gillmen were screaming. There were multiple Squidface Brutes, running around terrorizing the villagers, pillaging and causing mayhem. She saw that many of their homes had been broken into; the Brutes carrying out valuables and laughing with glee. The gillmen tried to fight back, but to no avail.

She stopped the submarine immediately, and reached for her hooks. 'What happened? What did you see out there?' Asked Sprocket, peeking out from the book of maps.

Nightfall turned towards her, 'There's an attack happening in the village next to us.' She opened the door at the side. 'Alert everyone else about it, I'm going out first.'

'Wait! Don't-' It was too late, she ran out.

Sprocket immediately headed towards the microphone and held it to her mouth. 'Skylanders, come to the control room now! I repeat, come into the room now!'

Within seconds, Wham-Shell, Rip Tide and Echo entered the control room. The room they were in was way closer than their sleeping quarters, so they could get there faster. Sprocket told them what was going on, and then the four of them rushed out of the ship.

They rushed into the village, keeping their eyes peeled for danger. They found Nightfall up front, fighting a Squidface Brute. She pinned him down and slashed at his back. That kept him down, at least for now.

'Who. Is. Responsible. For this?' She questioned the Brute. He took one look at the foreboding dreadwalker on his back and pointed meekly behind her.

She turned around, and the minute she did, she felt the hairs behind her neck prick up.

The Skylanders faced the figure behind them. Resting on the shoulder of a particularly large Squidface Brute was a familiar face. He wore a more confident grin on his face, and his body was buzzing with electrical energy. He had a silver chain around his neck, several shiny whistles hung from it, including another newer pink whistle. His hand was wrapped around it, as if he were getting ready to blow into the whistle. His pinky finger was missing, but that just added to his dangerous aura.

Taser Volt was back, and he was not going down without another fight.

OoOoOoOoOo

 **As you can tell from this chapter, I'm very subtle in terms of foreshadowing (*cough* I'm not *cough*). But I told you guys that I have more free time now, so here's chapter 4. See you guys next time.**

 **-Tabbyluna**


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

The five Skylanders faced the grinning villain with animosity. He gave a hand signal to the Brute he was on. He was immediately lowered to the ground.

'So, we meet again.' He said, inspecting the Skylanders calmly. 'Never expected for it to be so soon, yet here we are.'

He chuckled, 'You've met my mooks before, I'm sure. They didn't seem to faze you guys much then though; although it's not saying much. They're downright useless on their own. But I've got myself a brand-new weapon that's going to give all of you the challenge you all deserve!' He showed the pink whistle to the Skylanders, grinning maniacally.

Rip Tide was the first to speak up, 'What? A toy whistle is going to "give us the challenge we deserve"?' He laughed.

Taser scowled at Rip Tide. 'You can laugh now, fish-man,' He held the instrument near his lips, 'But just you wait until I show you what this baby can do. You'll see.' He took a deep breath, and blew.

 _Fhweeeett!_

A high-pitched screeching came out of it, causing all to stop what they were doing to cover their ears.

When it stopped, the air became still. One second passed.

Two seconds passed.

Three seconds passed.

Suddenly, a large group of gigantic jellyfish came up from behind Taser. They floated up in a swarm, stingers buzzing with poison and prepared to attack. A large pink cloud of pain circled above the village, threatening to kill them all. Then, they descended, coming down in their large, painful droves. This caused even more chaos and panic among the villagers, as they had to escape from two different threats now. Taser grinned, knowing that this time, he had the upper hand.

'Is it too late to take that back now?' asked Rip Tide.

OoOoOoOoOo

Rip Tide threw several fish at the Squidface Brute, catching his attention. The cloud of jellyfish had made it way more difficult to navigate around the place, but he had found a particularly large Brute hidden away, bullying a particularly small gillman. Rip Tide's distraction gave the gillman time to escape, as he quickly crawled away from the fight.

The Brute threw his anchor at Rip Tide, but he dodged it in the nick of time. He then pulled out his swordfish and swung it at the Brute. That only barely fazed him, and he swung his anchor around again. Rip Tide ducked yet again, and attempted to stab him with his sword. This cycle repeated for the next few attacks. Anchor, dodge, sword, anchor, dodge, sword. Having an extremely limited space to fight in meant less attacks he could do, meaning he couldn't do more effective attacks. So, at that very moment, he did what every great fighter does in such a situation.

He thought of a way out.

At the next anchor drop, he ducked and rolled. He specifically aimed to roll towards a particularly crowded group of jellyfish. He felt a little bit of the tingling sensation of jellyfish poison on his back; he was that close to them. But he remained focused on his task. He called out to the Brute, catching his attention again, and began to taunt him.

This angered the Brute, as he heaved his giant anchor and prepared to swing it hard at the tiny fish-man. But seconds before it even touched Rip Tide, he ducked away. Instead, the anchor went on to hit the jellyfish behind his back. This caused the crowd of jellyfish to scatter. Some of the scattering cnidarians, in their rush to escape, touched the Brute with their poisonous tentacles. This was finally enough to bring him down, as the Brute fell to the ground, writhing in pain.

Rip Tide grinned, he finally has space to fight. He scanned the area from his newly open space, and went off to fight the nearest Brute he could find. Little did he know that the moment he turned his back, the jellyfish simply floated back into the empty space.

OoOoOoOoOo

Wham-Shell swung his mace at the Brute, bringing it down. He ducked the group of jellyfish floating in front of him. While doing that, he noticed a small group of gillmen, lost and confused in the chaos. 'Get behind me!' He called out to them. The gillmen heard him and ran towards him, gingerly avoiding the large clouds of jellyfish.

'Now stay close unless I say otherwise, and lay low.' He instructed. The gillmen all nodded.

'Thanks for helpin' us out, Mr. Skylander.' Said one of the gillmen. 'I don't think our small village has ever gotten an attack like this.'

'Don't mention it. We're only doing our job.' They dodged a large jellyfish.

'I'm serious though. Our village never did have anyone who even thought of robbin' us. Usually folks take a glance at our simple town an' decide there ain't anythin' worth stealin'.' The gillman immediately became quiet as another Squidface Brute went up to them.

Wham-Shell ran up to him, prepared to attack. 'Go! Escape through there!' He pointed to a clear pathway that was probably made by Rip Tide. The gillmen nodded, and ran to safety. The space then immediately filled itself up with jellyfish.

He knocked the Brute in the stomach, causing him to fall. He hit him hard in the head again, knocking him out. He ran passed the Brute, dodging any jellyfish in the area. The sheer number of threats they had to look out for made this task so much harder. Everywhere he turned, there were more jellyfish and Squidface Brutes. It was rather aggravating.

Wham-Shell found himself face to face with yet another Squidface Brute. He towered over him, anchor positioned for throwing. Wham-Shell dodged his attack, but just narrowly. He himself away from the Brute, and shot some starfish bullets at him. They hit their target, and the Brute was pinned to the ground. Wham-Shell grinned, and moved on to see if there was anyone else in need of help.

From the corner of his eye, he saw the submarine just outside the village. Fortunately, no one had tried to attack that again. They were all too busy fighting in here to notice, he guessed. Although he could have sworn he saw someone looking out of the window…

He turned his attention back to the battle. _Focus on the task at hand Wham!_ He told himself. He ran back into the main battle. Although the village had been cleared out a little, there was still a lot of jellyfish in the village. He seriously wondered where he got that whistle, whether it was just another one of those weird magical artifacts that are scattered around Skylands. _Most likely,_ he thought. He squeezed past the crowd of jellyfish, thankful that his armour provided him with the necessary protection to get through this wave.

But not everyone here had something like that that could protect them, which was why they needed to get everyone out of here as soon as possible. He saw a small group of gillmen cramped together, trying to find a way out. Upon seeing them, he ran towards them and assisted them out.

OoOoOoOoOo

Echo ran past yet another group of jellyfish, carefully avoiding the poison-tipped tentacles. She encountered yet another Squidface Brute behind the cloud of stingers, but that was not what surprised her. What had was seeing her friend, Rip Tide, on the ground heavily injured. From what she gathered, he had been hit at least once by the Brute's anchor. He had gotten the standard cuts and bruises that they all got during battle, but he had also gotten several wounds that look like jellyfish stings.

Echo performed a siren scream on the Brute. He recoiled in pain, but before he could recover from it he was hit in the face by several bubble bombs, one after another. These attacks had cleared out a little bit more space for her to fight in. Thus, the finishing blow took the form of a sonic slam, which knocked the Brute out. Echo then ran over to get Rip Tide, she went over to him, and helped him up.

'Thanks for that, Echo.' Said Rip Tide, as he tried to stabilize himself. It failed, and he leaned back onto Echo.

She shifted his arm, pushing him into a more comfortable position. 'No problem big guy.' She jumped up slightly, preparing to swim the rest of the way out.

She navigated through the jellyfish swiftly, keeping an eye out for anyone else. Sure enough, she found several groups of gillmen scattered here and there in the debris, though thankfully with minimal injuries.

As she was about to reach the edges of the town, she thought that she heard a small cry for help. It was quiet, but it was there. 'Help me out! Please!' it went. Echo turned towards the sound, which seems to be coming from underneath a large pile of rubble. She turned to the least injured looking gillman and asked him, 'Can you take this guy from me?' He nodded and she replied with a 'Thanks!'

Echo ran towards the rubble, but it wasn't easy. From every angle, jellyfish floated around. They made it hard for her to navigate through the town. Most of the Brutes were already taken down (they were _really_ weak), but there were still some around. And with the number of gillmen that were still in the village, who were lost or trapped there, it was a near impossible task.

She finally made her way through the jellyfish, and found the pile of rubble which the gillmen were trapped under. She was at the edge of the town, but there were still some stray jellyfish floating about. _Why haven't they already floated off?_ Echo thought. This was weird.

Nevertheless, she put those thoughts away, and began digging through the rubble to get the gillmen out. It was hard, especially since she was not exactly the strongest person around. But eventually, she successfully got all of them out. She swiftly got them out as fast as possible, avoiding the jellyfish as much as possible. While getting one of them out, she swore she could see someone exit the submarine. But she brushed it off. She was seeing it happen from a distance after all, it was probably just a trick of the eye.

OoOoOoOoOo

Sprocket slammed her wrench into a Brute. She climbed up onto the fallen Squidface, pinning him down. She scanned the area, looking for the owner of the crying voice. She found a young gillman boy crying beside a crowd of jellyfish. Climbing down the Brute, she performed one final whack on the head to knock him out, and motioned to the boy to follow her.

Being underwater has practically left her mute. She couldn't speak to anyone through her diving suit, and even if she could, she couldn't exactly talk underwater. She was hardly able to understand what everyone was saying; she was able to hear some sounds, but they had the sound quality of someone whose ears were waterlogged. It was undeniably a disadvantage, and she had gotten a small sting because of that. It wasn't the worst injury she had witnessed down here though. Earlier, she had witnessed Rip Tide being pushed into a small cluster of the stinging terrors by a Brute. She wanted to warn him, but she couldn't make a sound underwater.

As she reached the edges of town, another group of jellyfish suddenly floated right in front of them. Sprocket narrowly dodged them, pulling the little boy out of harm's way at the same time. She spotted a way out, and motioned for the little boy to follow her. The sobbing boy nodded, and squeezed through the narrow space with her.

As she made her way out of the way, immediately a tall gillwoman went up to them. The little boy ran into her arms, finally reunited with his family. Sprocket looked towards the groups of gillmen that filled the clearing. Several of them were still looking around anxiously, looking for their family and friends. She saw some of them questioning Rip Tide, who looked overwhelmed at the number of people missing loved ones. Sprocket turned her attention to the village, which was still overflowing with jellyfish. If she had the time and materials to do so, she would make some device to clear out the cnidarian nuisances. Something that could contain all of them and keep them out of the way. Like a fish-tank, or maybe a giant box, or maybe a…

Her thoughts were interrupted by a tap on the shoulder. It was probably a good thing to, although she doesn't do it on purpose, sometimes she can get a little distracted by her thoughts on new inventions. She turned around to see who it was that tapped her on the shoulder. She thought it might just be Wham-Shell or someone like that, but the person she saw behind her surprised her.

The person she saw held up a small sign. It was a tiny tablet that said in neat cursive _'I know you can't hear anything underwater. So please take this net and clear up the area.'_ In the other hand, there was a gigantic hand-woven net. In it, there were several large seashells woven into it. The Princess Marina had a determined look on her face as she handed the golding the net. Sprocket was surprised, as Marina handed her the net and pressed in into her palm. _'Go.'_ She mouthed, focus radiating from her expression. Sprocket looked at the net, then at Marina, then at the group of gillmen still looking for loved ones. She looked at the field of stingers, then nodded at Marina, returning the look of determination. She mouthed _'Thanks,'_ back, and ran into the village in ruins.

It took a little getting used to, but Sprocket eventually got the hang of using the net. It was gigantic; Marina spent a _lot_ of time weaving this net. The net could carry a lot of jellyfish, eventually the area cleared up by a little bit. It wasn't much, but every little bit counted. Sprocket found the missing gillmen in no time, and with the increased space, she could fight a lot easier too. She even found out that, with all the large shells sticking out, it made a pretty good weapon. She didn't swing too hard, after all, the net was pretty heavy with the increasing number of jellyfish in there.

Outside the cluster of cnidaria, Marina clutched her sword. Nobody noticed her, as she was quite a distance from everybody else. They were all too busy and flustered anyways, and with only four Skylanders that could help them be reunited with loved ones, they were becoming more stressed by the minute. She looked at the sea of jellyfish, and throwing caution to the wind, she ran in. She figured that even though Rip Tide had said that the best way to learn how to fight was through experience, and she had only read about fighting techniques, she thought that she could hold her own in battle. After all, those gillmen needed all the help they could get.

That was a big mistake.

In the battlefield, the place was now slightly clearer. It made it easier fight, yes, but it also made you easier to be seen. It was one thing if they saw someone who looked like a hardened warrior, your worst nightmare, or a pretty-but-still-threatening-looking dragon. The enemy would see you as an equal in battle, and generally they were wrong about that. (The enemy usually lost.) It was another thing if you looked like a helpless royal, and to top it off, you have very minimal battle experience. In that situation, it was like bringing a lamb to a slaughterhouse.

It was at that moment when a particularly large Squidface Brute saw our young princess. He grinned, looking at how she seems to have absolutely no idea what she was doing. He sneaked up from behind her, and with one swift motion, he picked her up and began to drag her to his boss.

OoOoOoOoOo

Nightfall slashed at the Squidface Brute, bringing him down. She ran towards the gillman behind him and directed him to an escape route. Afterwards, she had to move on to the next Brute, who was bullying some gillmen. She attacked him with her hair, which was probably a wise move on her part. Her hair attacks didn't usually tire her out as fast as using her hooks did, as they were toxic and she could let the toxins affect her target. And she really needed to conserve as much energy as she could. She hadn't slept in two days, and with all the attacks going on, she was exhausted. On top of that, she had gotten stung once. It wasn't much, but it still burns. She was not in the best condition to fight, but she couldn't just sit back and let everyone else do the work, she needed to help them!

After she took the Brute down, she directed the gillmen out. She looked around the place. The whole place was a little blurry, so she rubbed her eyes and blinked in an attempt to focus her vision. The first thing she noticed when she opened her eyes was that the area was a little clearer. The floor was littered with fallen Squidfaces and it was mostly cleared of gillmen. The thing that she had noticed the most, though, was that there was less jellyfish. There was still quite a bit, but she could see a little clearer through the waves of jellyfish. She noticed yet another Squidface Brute. He wasn't doing anything to anyone (yet), but he was an enemy. She ran towards the Brute, sneaking up from behind him. But before she could do anything, the Brute turned towards her and swung his anchor at her.

Due to his sudden movement, Nightfall didn't escape unscathed. She had gotten hit. It wasn't much, but it was enough to knock her down. As the Brute advanced towards her, she raised her hair, threatening to hurt him if he tried to do anything to her. But she didn't have to attack. As he was about to hit her, a string of starfish bullets hit him and he went down. Nightfall turned to Wham-Shell, who held out his hand to help her up.

She got up by herself. 'That was nice of you and all, but I didn't need your help.' She told Wham-Shell.

He took one look at the state of the dreadwalker, and looked her in the eye. 'You need to sit out of this, Nightfall.'

'Never! I'm not going to let lives be lost because I didn't do something about it. Don't you-'

She was interrupted by a shout that rang throughout the village. The two Skylanders turned towards the sound, ready for battle. From the distance, all the way on the other side of town, they saw Taser Volt himself, clutching Princess Marina and holding her sword against her neck.

Nightfall could sense a monologue coming from him. It was an ideal time for attack. She ran towards them, attempting to be as discreet as she could. But she felt someone tug at her torn sleeve, and he refused to let go. 'Let go of me Wham-Shell!'

'No! Sit out of this, Echo, Sprocket, and I will-'

He was too late. She ran off, through the sea of jellyfish. Wham-Shell ran after her, but he soon lost her in the waves and waves of jellyfish. On the way, he found Echo and Sprocket. Together, they made their way through the jellyfish. Sprocket cleared the area a little more using the net, but it seemed like the jellyfish were beginning to float off.

'Well, it's about time!' said Echo. 'I wonder why they didn't float of earlier.'

OoOoOoOoOo

Marina felt his heavy breathing down her neck, in the form of many small bubbles. She could smell his breath. Not that she wanted to, it stank of fish and she could see bits of his meals stuck between his teeth.

Taser Volt grinned maniacally at his victim. 'Finally,' he said, 'Finally, I can retire from this "doing evil" thing! Finally, I can fire all these useless Brutes and go take my business elsewhere! Finally, I can make my Pa proud of me so he can _shut up_ about me!'

He tightened his hold on her, and brought the sword closer. 'You wouldn't believe all the stuff that I did just to please him. Been doing it even when I was a little boy.'

She could sense that he was becoming increasingly intense in his way of speaking, as all his pent-up emotions revealed themselves. 'When I was a little boy, I had always wanted to be a sailor scout. But my Pa wouldn't let me. Said that sailor scouts was nothing other than goody two-shoes boys with no spine. He said _I_ had no spine. He threatened to disown me if I joined!'

He clutched the Princess tighter, as if he were squeezing her. 'So, I started up my gang. It wasn't very good, as you can see. All I got to join me were the weakest of the weak. Squidface Brutes so pathetic that no one wanted anything to do with them. I tried to do something about these idiots, but all that ever brought us was arrest. I kept disappointing my father, and I kept failing. Until I met that darn sea-witch.'

He caught a glimpse of Marina's expression, delighted in the reaction he was getting. He was finally a successful villain! He knew he should stop and end her right now, but this was just so much fun, and he wanted to enjoy being a real villain for once in his life. So, he continued, 'The sea-witch was the one that gave me these whistles right here. She told me that these whistles could give whoever I wanted to have special powers. At that time, I was desperate. So, I begged her, "Please, I'll pay any price you want! Just gimme those whistles!" I paid an arm and a leg for these babies. And I got _this_ pink one for free. I threw this one away for a while though. It made me look like a sissy. But anyway,' He picked up his narration, 'I used these babies for my boys for a while. I used every single one of these. But that cheating old hag made me defects! These useless boys would have better abilities for only 'bout a minute, but then they reverted back to their original strength. Made my Pa _real_ mad at me, every time I got into trouble cause of these whistles. I tried to blow them again after their power was gone, but apparently you can only blow it once a day. That dirty sea-hag! So, I had been forced to use this sissy pink whistle. It turned out to have better effects than I thought, but look at 'em now!'

He gestured to the village. It was in ruins, but there was a notable lack of jellyfish. Most of them had floated off.

'The spell had worn off! Again, the spell lasted temporarily, and I had to return to my Pa empty-handed! But,' His voice suddenly became soft and cold, a far cry from his voice earlier. 'If I brought him a head of a pretty little princess of a rival kingdom, I could finally do what I want to do! I don't have to follow stupid family traditions anymore! I don't have to be tied by those chains anymore! Finally, I can be free!'

He was interrupted by someone gripping him by the neck. She used her other hand to cover his mouth, and wrestled him to the ground. This action pried the princess away from them, and she watched with mixed horror and awe at the battle. The heroine was a mess. She had obviously taken lots of damage out there from both Squidface Brute and jellyfish alike. But here she was, using as much strength she could muster, against a man who was completely caught by surprise. With the last ounce of her strength, she punched him hard in the jaw. That knocked the man out, and the moment he was out cold, the remaining Squidface Brutes ran away. Apparently, their wills were as strong as their bodies. The jellyfish that were not caught all floated away, as the spell they were under was broken. Once she realised everyone was safe, Nightfall pushed herself away from Taser Volt, and fell into a well deserved deep sleep.

OoOoOoOoOo

 **This chapter was sponsored by a lack of sleep and listening to the album The Family Jewels. I'll try to finish the story before July ends, because then, I'll be _really_ busy.**

 **-Tabbyluna**


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

At six in the morning the next day, Nightfall finally woke up. When she woke, she found herself in what looked like the sick bay. To her right, Echo and Wham-Shell sat in between her, and Rip Tide. Rip Tide was asleep, and seated next to him, was an anxious looking Marina. 'Oh, that's a relief. You're awake.' Said Wham-Shell. 'That was a reckless move you pulled out there, Nightfall. You should know better than to do that.'

Nightfall sighed, 'You sound like Spitfire.' Echo chuckled at that comment. She did not have many opportunities to work with the leader of the Superchargers, but from what she had seen and heard of him, she never expected him and Wham-Shell to have much in common.

Nightfall continued. 'Besides, what was I supposed to do? I couldn't let innocents be left to evil like that.'

'Noble motivations, but next time, could you do that when you are in better conditions for fighting. There was a lot that could have gone wrong. And you always chide others when they do stupid stuff on the battlefield, why don't you put your money where your mouth is?'

'Wait, money where?' asked Rip Tide, suddenly waking up.

'Weird expression. I don't know why people say it.' Explained Echo.

Nightfall looked at the king crustacean stubbornly. 'That was other's, this is me.'

'The rules don't apply to you!?'

'What I'm trying to say here is that I don't need anyone to look out for me personally. I can do that on my own.'

'Guys, can you two not argue when there's a kid in the room?' Called Sprocket from the doorway. She had called up Remora to help with driving, as she had wanted to check up on her friends. 'By the way Marina, here's your net.' She handed her a neatly folded bundle, now jellyfish free.

'Thank you, Sprocket.'

'She wouldn't really be a kid any longer though, Sprocket.' Said Nightfall.

Sprocket pulled up a chair for her to sit on, 'I guess, but she did go through a lot earlier. I mean, look at her.'

She was right. Marina was in a pretty bad shape. She looked freaked out, and had buried her face into her hands. 'Can I talk to all of you about something? It's kind of eating me up.'

The five Skylanders looked at her. 'Go on. Shoot.' Said Echo.

The seventeen-year-old siren took a deep breath, and began to tell her story. 'Earlier I told you three,' She gestured to Echo, Rip Tide, and Wham-Shell. 'That I had asked my friend to get me a sword for my birthday. Well, this was because of a special reason, the same reason I weaved my net too. I must explain my choices a little bit, though. Like I had told you Rip Tide, I am allowed to read whatever I want just as long as it was approved by the court. As it turns out, the tales of Skylanders are approved by the courts. The Skylanders soon became my favorite topic to read about. I loved the stories. The adventure, the friendship, the whole thing just blew me away. I was a bored princess in my tower, and these stories amazed and inspired me. I studied as much as I could about combat and strategy.'

Her voice took on a quieter tone, 'I never really wanted to be a queen, as I was afraid I will be an unpopular ruler. I don't like how our kingdom is run, but almost everyone seems satisfied, so I didn't think it would be a popular decision to change some of the laws. The kingdom's prosperity might fall! So, I made up my mind on the matter, and when the opportunity came, I asked to meet you. Because all my life, ever since I had read about your tales of heroism, I had wanted to be a Skylander.'

The room became tense with understanding as everyone realized her motivation. Marina nodded, but continued. 'That was one of the reasons why I chose you five to come on this quest. I thought that you five would be understanding about what I go through.'

'Well, with your sister constantly breathing down our necks, we definitely feel your pain.' Quipped Echo.

'Heh...' Went everyone.

'She's actually why I'm so worried right now. Throughout the mission, I kept hearing about her behavior when she's around all of you. When I made my decision that I wanted to become a Skylander, I thought that my sister could still rule the kingdom in my place. Sure, she was the younger twin, but nobody knew that but our family. It's tradition in my kingdom that the royal family must not reveal who is the oldest in the event of a multiple birth until coronation. That way, if the older sibling does something "irredeemable", they can just quietly disown him or her.

'I thought that I could get away with being a Skylander like that, but hearing about how she treats others such as all of you, I don't think I could let the citizens of the kingdom suffer through her. It was weird, I already knew that she was not a capable ruler, but I still wanted to be a Skylander. I had to hear her act out and drag you all into this mess to realize my mistake.' She buried her head deeper. 'Does this make me selfish?'

Everyone took a moment to think about that. Most of them had never thought about it like that.

Marina had more to say about the matter though.

'And then there was the matter about the villain that attacked us. Before you came in and saved me, he told me about his backstory. He wanted to become a Sailor Scout when he was a young boy.'

'Well, that explains the gang name.' Went Rip Tide.

'Anyways, he wanted to be a scout, but his father would not let him. So, he ended up down the path of villainy. He was always resentful of what had happened to him though, he never wanted to do it. And, well, a part of me is worried that I would end up just like him. Resentful that I did something that I never wanted to do. I'm worried that I'll end up regretting staying and becoming a queen. I'm also afraid I will be terrible at it. But at the same time, I don't want to leave the kingdom in the hands of my sister. I just don't know who I want to be!'

Everyone looked at the seventeen-year-old girl. She was quite obviously scared, clueless about where her future would be like. Unsure about what the world had in store. But that statement solved their mystery, although now they have a clueless siren with them.

Wham-Shell sat up a little, 'Well, you seem rather confused about your future. Don't you?' She nodded.

The king crustacean sat back, silently thinking about his next words. 'Well, I can't make the choice for you, Marina. This is something that you will have to decide for yourself.' He paused. 'But, I can give you some advice. A far wiser man than I ever am once told me that the best way to make difficult decisions is to do what is right. So, what do you think is the right thing to do?'

Marina thinned her lips. 'I should lead the kingdom.' She decided.

'But how am I supposed to do that? I barely know how to made a good plan. You've seen my plans in action, I'm awful at them.'

'I know.' Said Wham-Shell. He had called her out on her recklessness earlier. 'But it's a skill you can learn.' Said the king crustacean. 'You are leaving for an annual convention that teaches young royals how to become better rulers. I suggest you take advantage of that.' He paused again. 'Also, maybe get a little more battle training _before_ running out there.'

She rubbed the back of her head. 'I guess. Running into the battlefield was a pretty stupid move on my part.'

She licked her lips, 'But what if I end up bitter and resentful about doing this? I don't want to end up like that gang leader. Because I didn't do what I wanted to do.'

Once again, the Skylanders were silent trying to find a good answer. Eventually, one was found.

'I guess I could tell you a story to help you out with that.' Replied Sprocket.

She began. 'Well, as you know, I originally was an inventor slash repair-woman. I would have been happy doing that for the rest of my life, but then Kaos kidnapped my uncle. I had to put all my plans on hold when I decided to go on and look for him. When I went on to join the Skylanders, it wasn't easy. I was completely outside my comfort zone. Sure, I could use my inventions, but I was _not_ a natural fighter. I was clumsy. _Really_ clumsy. Remember, Wham?'

Wham-Shell snickered, recalling those few missions he had with an inexperienced Sprocket. 'Yes, yes I do.'

Sprocket continued her story, 'At several points, I had wanted to give up. But I had always remembered these words that my uncle once said. He said that when he was growing up, no one was there to support his want to be a mechanic. Everyone discouraged him, but he decided to learn by himself. At a young age, he figured out that there was no point in moping about being unable to control things you can't. He couldn't control who his family was, but he could control his outlook. So, he studied everything he could get his hands on. Reading books about electricity and inventions so that he can teach himself.'

She smiled, 'I learnt more from him than I ever did from my tutors and teachers, even my parents. And that, by far, was one of the most important lessons I have ever learnt.'

'Thank you, Sprocket.' She said. 'Thank you for all this advice. I think I may be able to face tomorrow.' She smiled a small smile. 'By the way, please do not tell anyone what happened. I haven't told my sister or anyone yet, so keep this a secret. If the truth got out, I would be completely illegible for leadership.' Everyone nodded.

'Also, I really don't think you were being that selfish.' Added Echo.

'Are you sure you're not just saying that because of your own personal experience?' Asked Marina.

'No,' Said Echo bluntly.

'Anyways, as I was saying, I don't think you were being selfish.'

'Please elaborate.'

'It's kinda like how when people say sorry, versus when they _show_ they're sorry. You were a little selfish, just a little bit in the beginning,' (At this point, she realized everyone gave her a look that said, "You sure you're not biased?" But she continued.) 'but now, you're trying to help you're kingdom. And that's a good thing. So what I'm trying to say here is that it doesn't matter now, and you should chill.'

'Uh, alright. I will keep that in mind.' Suddenly, she let out a yawn.

'Wait, you haven't slept all night, haven't you?' asked Wham-Shell.

The teenager sheepishly nodded.

'Go get some sleep then. We'll probably arrive at your convention tomorrow.' Said Sprocket. Marina nodded, thanked them all once again, and went off.

Rip Tide broke the silence. 'So _that_ was why she wanted to hear my thoughts on sword-fighting and combat!' He let out a low whistle. 'Dang, and I thought that she was just one of those "quirky" royal types.'

'I suppose you wouldn't be bothered by that at all, would you?' asked Nightfall. Rip Tide was kind of well-known to have a thing for girls who could use traditional medieval weapons.

'No way! It actually makes her _way_ more awesome than she already is! She is a _fine_ girl.' He grinned one of his huge grins as he said it. This prompted everyone else to roll their eyes.

'What? She's almost eighteen, and it's not like our age gap is huge or anything.' Said Rip Tide, meaning every word he said. He wasn't wrong though, there had been larger recorded age gaps in Skylands.

'Well, uh, good luck to you then, Rip.' Said Echo, trying to mean it. It wasn't that she doubted him (much), but the chances of the royal courts of the Northern Siren Kingdom even letting him in were…highly unlikely. Not to mention she didn't think he was the type who was willing to settle down. Rip Tide seemed to believe it was possible though. And she didn't have the heart to stop his optimism. She thinks he would probably get over it soon enough, anyway. At least it was the nicer twin though-

Her thoughts came back to the twins. She was still a little upset about what had happened yesterday. It didn't really bother her much anymore, but it was still on her mind. 'At least it's not her sister.' She joked.

Nightfall groaned, 'Urgh, don't remind me. She practically embodies almost everything wrong about her kingdom.' She hugged her knees, as she had placed her pillow on them, her face was pressed on the pillow.

Echo sighed. 'I heard about your encounter too. Sharing a tent with her and hearing what she thought of all of you is an experience I will never want to go through again _ever_.' She still thinks that she deserved some comeuppance for what she had said and done. Nothing drastic, just some small bit of karma for that sort of behavior. She had pondered that for a while, but all of her ideas were a little much.

'I guess that's what years upon years of that kind of teaching gets you. It was my theory on why people back home behaved the way that they did.' Contributed Sprocket. Comparing how the siren princess acted with the children she knew growing up was uncanny. The behaviors were unbelievably similar.

'By the way, what happened to Taser Volt?' Asked Nightfall. She was curious about what had happened to him.

'He's been put to jail. Again.' Snickered Wham-Shell. 'I must say, for someone who can apparently fight so well, he is completely unable to take a hit.'

'Oh, I knew a lot of guys like that when I was training in sword-fighting as a kid.' Perked up Rip Tide. He became more animated as he shared his experience. 'There were always a bunch of guys who could do all sorts of fancy footwork, but they couldn't take a hit even if they tried. That was usually because they didn't do the right exercises and fooled around when we had to do them. Unlike _me._ That was why I could take out all of them. Because I was responsible.' Rip Tide grinned.

Nightfall raised her brow. ' _Suuure_.' Fortunately, it seemed that Rip Tide did not catch her sarcasm.

'Hey,' Started Sprocket, who was looking at her watch. 'We should be able to arrive at the convention center by the next day. But I'll have to drive the sub.' She got up to leave for the control room.

'Wait, I can drive this.' Called Nightfall, getting up from her cot.

'Don't you think you should rest a little bit more? It would do you good.' Said Wham-Shell.

She slipped on her jacket. 'I can drive this, Wham-Shell. You don't have to worry. I'll make sure that we make it there even faster.' She walked out of the room, Sprocket following suit. As they closed the door, they could just make out Rip Tide going 'Hey! Wait a minute…' This caused Sprocket to laugh.

'Took him long enough.' Said Nightfall, closing the door behind her.

They walked slowly. Nightfall was trying to conserve energy, as she did still feel her muscles ache. Sprocket just didn't naturally walk quickly. They walked in silence, until Sprocket broke the silence.

'I sent the mission report to Master Eon earlier. I asked if we could help with the repairs with the gillman village. He said we could. So, that's what we're doing before we get home.'

Nightfall nodded in response.

'Another thing, can I check out the boiler room one last time?' She asked Nightfall.

'Huh? Oh, you want to do that?'

Sprocket nodded.

'Well, sure, I guess. I mean, we do have to return this when we get there, so better take advantage of it while you can.'

Sprocket grinned excitedly, 'Thanks!' She had spent most of that night when she was repairing the submarine there. But she had yet to explore every corner of that place. She was eager to dig right in and explore every little mechanical secret about that place.

'I guess you were right about one thing Sprocket, Marina was an exception.' Admitted Nightfall. 'I wonder why "exceptions" keep happening though.'

'Well, scientifically, it has something to do with nature and nurture. Brain chemistry or something like that.' Biology wasn't her strong suit. 'But, from a slightly less scientific standpoint, maybe exceptions happen when the inhabitants of wherever they're born need them the most.'

Nightfall blinked, 'Well that's corny.'

'I know.' Said Sprocket. 'I read it somewhere and that was my first thought. But the more that I thought about it, the more that it kind of made sense. In a way.'

'Oh, really?' The dreadwalker looked at the golding. 'Have you affected anyone in a good way like you described?'

Sprocket smiled. 'In a way, yeah. She was my only childhood friend. But I'll tell that story another time.'

The two of them carried on walking to the control room.

'I certainly hope that Marina finds out why she was an exception. Because I have a hunch that the Northern Siren Kingdom is going to have a slightly better reputation in a few years.' Said Sprocket.

The two girls walked off into the control room. That had been a weird adventure that had happened. It was certainly weird how "exceptions" came about. Most everyone has the potential to be an "exception". But they usually don't end up doing anything with it, making "exceptions" exceptions. If they do try, usually peer pressure catches up with them soon enough.

Nightfall looked at Sprocket entering the boiler room, excited to look through all the wonders in store. And yet sometimes, there are exceptions who don't let the world affect them. They became "exceptions" because they knew that they could be better than they were expected to be. Even if no one pushed them, or even wanted them to. They were unafraid to do what was right, and never back down. Even when no one is there to stand by them.

She certainly hoped the princess would become such an exception.

OoOoOoOoOo

This was it, they were finally at the convention. She looked at all the other early arriving royals with a watchful eye. All of them looked relaxed, carefree, like they were at a party as opposed to a convention to help them become better rulers.

Oceana had already walked off to talk to her friends. She could see her in the distance. Judging from her body language, she seemed to be describing their journey there. It got boring watching her talk like that for a while, so she set off to go elsewhere.

She found herself looking at the convention schedule. Everyone was handed one of these every-time they came her. Usually people threw them away, but she usually kept her own. She began flipping through the pamphlet, looking through the talk they had set up.

As she looked through the pamphlet, she began to plan out her next few days. It was something she had never really taken the time to do, but here she was. She figured that she owed it to the kingdom to be the best ruler that she could possibly be.

As she looked at the distant silhouette of the Sea Shadow in the distance, she figured that she owed it to the Skylanders too. _After all, they are the ones that helped me decide what I wanted to be._ She looked through it once more, ignoring the hundreds of royal children treating this like a social event, as she sat there, the "exception" in the corner.

FIN

OoOoOoOoOo

 **Done! This is done! After the plot changing constantly, and multiple rewrites, it is done!**

 **Special thanks to RainStorm, who was pretty much the only one who commented. And thank you readers, even if you don't comment.**

 **Aaannd, I will see you all soon!**

 **-Tabbyluna**


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